NAS manufacturer Synology came to this year's CeBIT well-prepared, with lots of interesting announcements. Let's begin with the big news first, literally speaking. The new DS1513+ are DS1813+ are NAS devices for the demanding user in need of five or eight-disk storage, with the option to upgrade with an expansion unit. The hardware is fairly similar to their predecessors, DS1512+ en DS1812+. The main difference are the more silent and screwless trays, and the two extra gigabit network ports. The new models still use the Intel Atom D2700 as processor.

The Synology DS1813+

The DS1813+ and DS1513+ have four gigabit ethernet ports.

Another new arrival is the DS714. Like the Thecus N2520 and N4520, it's equipped with an Intel Atom CE5315 32-bit 1.2 GHz SoC. That means it will be positioned a bit below the DS713+ with Intel Atom D2700. The DS714 features a single gigabit network port but also comes with an HDMI port, which can turn this NAS into a media player. Synology is also considering releasing a more affordable version of the DS714 with a more basic chassis similar to that of the DS213/DS13+. The DS714 will be available around June.

The Synology DS714

The new screwless trays in the DS714, DS1513+ and DS1813+.

Synology present a more entry-level model as well. The DS213j has the same white chassis we've seen on the entry-level NAS, but has a faster 1.2 GHz Marvell ARM controller with 512 MB of RAM. Synology has really tried to make this a quiet NAS, with a more silent rubber-mounted fan and rubber feet for the disks.

The Synology DS213j has rubber feet and rubber mounting points for the fan.

The USB Station, a device that lets you connect an external disk to your network, has also been updated. The USB Station 3 comes with two USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader in the front and Micro SD card slot hidden in the bottom. The firmware is stored on a MicroSD card, but you could replace it by a bigger card allowing you to use the remaining space as storage which you can share via the USB Station.